rant whine 'splain espouse: To "buff" or not too "buffed"

Sunday, June 27, 2004

To "buff" or not too "buffed"

Just because "everybody says it this way" doesn't mean it's actually correct.

Bubble-burster: When you go to Dictionary.com and look stuff up, you must surely realize that Dictionary.com's definitions are not a single authoritative source. Dictionary.com is in fact a compendium of numerous definitions from various online sources, 11 at last count.

Which is why you can go to 11 (or two) different sites (or maybe pick up a real dictionary fercryinoutloud!) and get seemingly endless different (and even conflicting) definitions, pronunciation keys, usages, and origins.

Example: When you look up "buffed" at Merriam-Webster, it gives you both "buff" (verb/adj.) -- thinking you misspelled it -- and also the actual word you looked up, "buffed" (adj.):

Main Entry: buff
Function: adjective
1 : of the color buff
2 or buffed : having a physique enhanced by bodybuilding exercises

Again, just because everyone thinks "buff" and "buffed" are the same doesn't make it correct. Being one of the few in the know, I prefer to smugly (very smugly, I admit) but firmly believe that original usage, definition, and pronunciation outweighs what has become fashionable, popular, or simply pervasive.

Buying SUVs, chopping down 2,000-year-old trees to make fences, and invading 3rd world countries just because one has the military force to do so are all considered "acceptable usage" -- in fact these are the overwhelmingly popular "acceptable" uses, according to the vast majority of the population. But just because 98% of the population accepts them doesn't make it correct (or right) to me.

I realize my smug assertion that I'm right and you're all wrong makes me an elitist prick. I'm okay with that. I strive each day to be better and smarter than I was yesterday; this is my moral responsibility. Indeed it's the moral responsibility of all individuals.

And, in a way, you're all correct in your assertion that I'm wrong. Because if it's acceptable to you that "everyone else says it this way, so I will too, in spite of evidence that says I might've been saying it wrong all these years and just following the example of everyone else who was also saying it wrong," then you're correct too. You've got 98% of the population on your side. Go for it.